‘League of Legends’ Warwick Rework: New Abilities Kit and Release Date


League of Legends finally dropped the much-awaited info on the rework of classic champion Warwick, and his new abilities kit is epic.

All of Warwick’s abilities have been reworked with significant changes to all of them, which enhances his ganking potential. Warwick has fallen from favor as a reliable jungler in League for a couple seasons now, mainly due to an overly simplistic kit lacking the utility needed to truly shine in a meta where dashes, stuns, and burst damage rule the day.

Warwick’s reworked abilities still maintain the “feel” League of Legends gamers expect from the champion. His focus is still on having incredible sustain, and the ability to pursue better than most champions. His ultimate ability still suppresses and applies on-hit effects, but has much greater utility than previously.

A still from the ‘League of Legends’ showcase trailer for the Warwick Rework. [Image by League of Legends]

Warwick’s passive ability, Eternal Thirst, still applies magic damage on hit, starting at 8+2 per level, so the magic damage is 10 at level one and 44 at level 18. The heal effect only procs when he’s below half health, so the sustain level is less than it was. On the other hand, while this isn’t verified on the official League of Legends website, PCGamesN claims the healing effect is tripled when Warwick is below 25 percent hp.

Warwick’s reworked Q ability is Jaws of the Beast. Warwick lunges forward, dealing damage, and healing for a portion of damage dealt. The trick with this new ability is holding down Q. If done, Warwick will leap behind the target, even following them should they try and escape. The example used on the official LoL site shows Warwick lunging at Ezreal, who teleports away to escape, but ends up with a hungry wolf nomming his back. This gap closer makes Warwick a much greater threat as a ganker. What has yet to be revealed is if this ability can be used to jump walls when a monster or champion is the target.

Blood Hunt, Warwick’s new W, has both a passive and active component. In addition to the classic ability of running faster towards wounded champions. Warwick gains significant amounts of attack speed when attacking a Blood Hunted champion. This also applies to wounded jungle monsters. On the downside, the attack speed boost is no longer applied to all allies, which was one of the more powerful teamfight abilities in the game.

Another change to Blood Hunt is the ability to activate it to gain the benefit even when a champion is above half hp. Combined with ghost, fast boots, and Warwick’s ult, Infinite Duress, activating Blood Hunt makes Warwick extremely mobile at all times. Once activated, Blood Hunt has a very long cooldown that is halved when no enemies are being hunted. As such, it appears that even once activated, Blood Hunt’s passive will still be in effect, increasing the likelihood of activation.

Warwick’s E, Primal Howl, gives him the hard CC he needs to be a truly dangerous ganker. In addition to giving him significant damage reduction for 2.5 seconds at the end of the ability or if it is activated again, all enemies near Warwick are feared for one second. Again, coupled with Infinite Duress, this exponentially increases the effectiveness of the Warwick rework as opposed to his original form.

Finally, Warwick’s ultimate R ability, Infinite Duress, had significant changes to its mechanics. No longer is it a lock-on auto-hit, but rather can be dodged. However, the range of Infinite Duress is now affected by Warwick’s movement speed. The skill’s range is about 2.5 second’s worth of movement speed (i.e., how far he would move in a straight line). So when Ghost (movement speed buff) plus good boots, plus Blood Hunt are all active, Infinite Duress becomes a very long range ability. The demo videos show Warwick leaping walls over what looks like a full lane width. In fact, one example shows him hurling himself into the center of the dragon pit from just north of the brush on the northeastern side of the Red Lizard Bluff.

Even if the target survives Infinite Duress, Jaws of the Beast and Primal Howl will keep the enemy champion from escaping, even with Flash.

Summoner spell Ghost and Warwick’s Blood Hunt in action. [Image by League of Legends -Top Secret Channel]

Sadly, it appears League of Legends players still have to wait for the next patch before getting to try out the new Warwick build. Patch 7.1 lacks Warwick’s new lupine persona, but it seems he will appear in patch 7.2, likely to come out January 25. If not, League of Legends devs have promised he will be out before the next new champion appears.

So what do you think of Warwick’s new kit? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!

[Featured Image by League of Legends]

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